Edmonton Entertainment Expo

This weekend I decided to volunteer for the Edmonton Entertainment Expo. I've attended these type of shows on occasion down in Calgary before (here & here) and have enjoyed them quite a bit. Partly, one of the reasons for me deciding to be a volunteer is that I hate lineups. So for a bit of service, I got to skip right by these folks.

 So I could rummage around the stacks of comics looking for deals on Trade Paperbacks.

Or taking in some gory costumes. The Silent Hill nurse is enough to give you nightmares.

Over the last few years I have noticed that Steampunk has become huge.I really appreciate some of the great imagery and DIY style of the cosplayers but overall I just don't get it. That being said - this gun was cool.

When I wasn't wandering around aimlessly I was working the VIP line for celebrity autographs. My job was to escort VIP pass holders to the front of individual celebrity autograph lines, keep people moving around the exits and tell people to turn off their 'flash'. The celebrities in attendance included:

• Misha Collins from Supernatural - I had never heard of him but the ladies loved him. He was at the far side of the line from me and for the first two hours of my shift I thought Misha was a woman due to the name.

• Lee Majors the Six Million Dollar Man - Seemed nice but getting a little rickety and in need of a tune up.
• Julie Newmar - The original and best Catwoman. She is looking her age and had a bit of trouble getting around but she was fantastic with the fans and by all accounts a very nice lady. Plus, she wore some cat ears the first day which everyone loved. The old pictures of herself that she were signing were pin-up style and were exceptionally hot.
• Burt Ward, the original Robin, smiled a lot and wore a Hawaiian shirt. 
• Jewel Staite from Firefly and Stargate Alliance. Meh...She ran about an hour late at all times. 
• Billy Dee Williams who rocks a purple cape better than any man as Lando Calrissian.
• Charisma Carpenter from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Holy Crap she looked good. Especially for 42. She was hard to take your eyes off of. I couldn't get a picture of her as she really didn't like all the cameras around. I had to continually tell people, "No pictures of Charisma". I don't think anyone was confused thinking that they couldn't take any pictures of my undeniable charm. Also, she could seem a little stand offish but she was quite nice with young kids and even stomached an especially creepy dude who had an empty baby stroller full of knick knacks and a copy of her Playboy issue. That dude gave even me the creeps.
• Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura from Star Trek the Original Series. I spent the majority of my time volunteering about 5 feet from her. She was a very nice and very accommodating lady. She ended up signing a lot of weird and cool stuff. When requested to sign the Mr. Potato Head version of herself I could hear her giggle and proclaim that she had forgotten all about them. For her age she looked great, almost regal. She was easily the most recognized and appreciated of the fans at the show.

My spot at the show. 

I wore a Red Shirt in front of a Star Trek Original Series veteran on a "Away Mission" for multiple hours and managed to walk away and tell the tale. Much better than these Star Fleet rejects...

When you start walking the floor of the show you quickly start to realize who the real stars of the show are - the Cosplayers.  One shopkeeper/cosplayer from CanadaCosplay.com had all of the guys talking - she was the most realistic/enhanced human of Jessica Rabbit you will ever see. Gravity has a new opponent.

Here she is leading a pack of kids in a dance party of Gangnam Style.

Costumes from the crowd.

Batman and Zatanna (Z is probably my favorite cosplay costume ever)

Storm Troopers, Deadpool (lots of him this year) and Spidey.

Hello Kitty + Samurai = Awesome

Superman, Ghostbuster, Wonder Woman

Iron Man and Elektra (such a cute little assassin)

A completely badass Red Skull complete with the Cosmic Cube.

Catwoman, Harley, Bane (lots of him in the movie costume), Batman

I have no idea - but I love it.

I usually come away from these conventions with a couple of small purchases and I am happy with my hall this year.

 Good deals on some hard to find comics by Alan Moore, Garth Ennis and Matz.

 A lovely signed picture of Lt. Uhura.

My new favorite shirt. Fing Fang Foom whose name means "He whose limbs shatter mountains and whose back scrapes the sun".

Well done to the organizers of the Expo. Can't wait till the next one.

Calgary Comic

For the second year in a row now I attended the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo in June (Last years post). It was a fantastic time with tons of great creators, comics, celebrities, and cosplay.

This year I was lucky enough to attend the event with my friends, the Bells. Matt, Jessie, Andrew and I gathered in the rental vehicle and took the journey down the QE2 together. It was Andrews first expo so his mom got him dressed appropriately.

At the show there were a ton of C & B list celebrities. I could really care less about meeting any of them so instead I tried to snap a couple of pictures to poor affect.

A couple of my geeky favourites.

Diamond Dallas Page

 Gail Simone - the writer for Birds of Prey, Secret Six, Batgirl  @GailSimone

Of course these two pale in comparison to meeting the great Christopher Hastings of Doctor McNinja fame.

http://drmcninja.com/newreaders.php

But really, no one cares about my geeky celebrity meetings. People want to see some cosplay.

Edmonton Nerdapalooza

Yesterday was the Edmonton Collectible and Toy Show at the Shaw Conference Centre. It is an annual event where shopkeeps and independent nerds bring their comics, toys and pop culture collectibles to sell and be seen.

These shows are typically a lot of fun. There's all kinds of crazy crap and voyeurs dressed up and showing off. This year I had to attend earlier than I liked, around 10am, as I had a rec-hockey game that afternoon. It's best to go in early to mid afternoon as all the crazies with their cosplay are out rather than first thing in the morning.

The booths and displays were similar to last year and largely not too impressive with the exception of the Akira art and the dude that did velvet portraits of nerd icons. This year the big draw was the celebrity in the house. The one and only Levar Burton (aka - Geordi Laforge, and the host of the Reading Rainbow). Additionally the wrestling twin brothers from different mothers, The Dudley Boys were in the building.

As I have no patience, I never bothered to wait in line for an autograph. Instead I just sidled up as close as possible and snapped a few pics.

There were a few people in costume when I was there, but they weren't too impressive. Not like when I was at Calgary's comic show.  However, I was thankful to see the Star Wars people out in full effect.

I'm thinking having storm troopers guard recycling bins won't help the Shaw eco programs.

R2D2 was pivoting around making sounds and then stopped to pose for me. Such a nice droid.

Some cool designs and models used as props in movies and games displayed at the show.

And of course being that it is a "toy" show there were some pretty cool vendor displays.

Seriously though, who has that many my little pony's?

 I'm currently shopping around for a couple omnibus collections (Ex Machina, Daredevil) and some obscure older titles (xombi) but I couldn't find any deals at the show. Of course I didn't walk away empty handed. I picked up 3 trades and some cool pins that you may see in a future post.

That Jonah Hex book (The Six Gun War) is seriously bad ass.

Overall, it was a good time. If anything, it actually just got me even more excited to go back to Calgary this year. For those looking to go from Edmonton check out my favorite local comic book shop, the Happy Harbour, and get on the cruiser.